Mud flume



March 1929- w. WRIGHT ET AL MUD FLUME Filed May 1927 q NVENTOR. MUM L, 0mg! A TTORNEYS Patented Mar. 26, 1929.

" UNITEDSTATES PATENT. OF ICE.

WILLIAM L. WRIGHT, OF NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, AND GEORGE W. WARNER, OF KINGS- ]?ORT, TENNESSEE, ASSIGNORS TO THE AMERICAN ROLLING MILL COMPANY, OF MIDDLETOWN, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO. Y

Mun FLUME.

Application filed May 2, 1927.

wells, the use of the rotary drill requires a body of. mud to carry up the particles of rock and sand left as drillings in the well.

This mud is not always easy to obtain, and in sandy country is so far as possible conserved and used repeatedly during drilling operations. I r

The practice has been to conduct the mud as discharged from the well hole into a trough or ditch made from wooden timbers and caulked with oakum. The handling of the mud, cleansing it of rock and sand, cleaning out of the ditch, and maintenance of the ditch in condition so that it does not leak, has presented a considerable problem to the well drilling industry.

The vibrations of-the well derricks jar loose the packing or caulking of the mud ditches and cause loss of mud. The ma-1 terials making up the ditches have little salvage value, and cannotbe torn down and setup again, and cleansing of the settling boxes and parts of the system cannot be readily accomplished.

It is the object'of our invention to con struct an efficient, and economical return flume and settling box system, which can be easily set up and moved from place to place, and which will not leak mud, and can be readily kept clean and effective without stopping drilling bperations. Among other things, it is our object to so. arrange the settling boxes in our system, that they can be flushed out with a hose, avoiding the tedious shoveling operations called for in the old mud ditch. We employ in our structure, so far. as practical, standard metal fiume sections and valves, so that replacement can be readily made for accidentally destroyed parts. In the drawings we have employed the Lennon type fiume, having supports in the form of external and internal rods, and it will be understood that this is but one of the types of fiume joint and support that may be employed.

We attain our objects by that certain construction and arrangement of parts to be is taken.

Serial No. 188,390.

hereinafter more specifically pointed out and claimed.

In the drawings I Figure 1 is a plan view of the illustrative type of installation that we have selected for describing'our invention.

I Figures 2 to 6 are sections taken of Figure 1 on the lines 2-2 to 66 respectively thereof.

Figure 7 is a section indicating a Lennon type fiume support.

We have not shown the orifice and drilling equipment used in drilling the well. It will be understood that the mud from the well together with the drillings and sand suspended in it will enter the mud fiume at the point where the section on the line 2+2 The fiume itself is built up from semicircular sections 1 of galvanized sheet iron or steel, supported on trestles 2. The well known Lennon type fiume is employed in the design shown. Thus, the fiume sections are joined together by means of joints having a countersunk inner rod 3 and two outer rods 4, said outer rodsv terminating by threaded ends which are fitted with nuts 5. The plates 6 receive the said threaded ends, and the plates are spiked down to stringers 7, forming part of the trestles.

It will'be convenient to refer to the several sections separately. They are the lead A from the well to the settling box, the settling box B, and the lead G from the settling box tothe mud reservoir or box D.

The fiume sections for the part A of the system will be of fairly shallow form as indicated at 1, and terminate in an L shaped section 1. A suitable gate valve 8, forms one end of this L shaped section. When this valve is raised, the part A can be flushed out and cleaned. In order to set up a gravity flow of mud, there'will be an incline to the part A.

The part B of the fiume structure is The right angle end of the section 9 will be closed with a plate 11, and this plate will be cut out to form a joint with the flume section C, which forms the third part of the structure. There will be a like plate where the 'L shaped section 1 joins the part B. The flume sections of the part C as indicated at 12, are of a shallower depth a ain, and there will be a slope in this part C down to the mud box D. Y

The mud box need not be made of metal, and we have shown a box formed of boards bolted into a rectangular structure with a central partition.

In use, the mud from the well is poured into the trough 0r flume at the beginning of the part A. Itflows by gravity carrying most of the drillings and sand with it, and dumps into the part B. In the part B, the added depth will permit the heavier elements to settle out of the mud, and permit the good mud to flow into the part C. From the part C, the mud flows into the mud box which serves as a reservoir for the drill 4 pumps which pass it back into the well again, thus maintaining the cycle.

When the part B, or settling box portion of the flume requires cleaning to remove the collected drillings and sand, the well pump can be stopped for a moment, permitting the flume part A to drain, andthe good mud to pass across the top of the filled up settling box portion B into the section C.

The gate 10 is then opened and a hose used to flush out the settling box portion. The hose can also clean out the portion A of the flume structure. The drill pump is then started up again and the operations continue as before.

The advantage of this system over a settling box which has to be shoveled out is quite obvious, and even if the gates and sections were not as shown, the problem of shoveling out a semicircular structure is quite different from shoveling from a wooden trough built of boards and rectangular in section.

There is nothing heavy about the flume construction, and the problem of providing a simple tight joint for flume section has long ago been completely worked out. The flume sections of different depth and the valves, are standard articles'which can be procured on the market, and the whole structure as shown can easily be taken down and put up again. Also more sections can be added, or sections can be removed, where the requirements for length of the circuit are changed as between drilling operations.

e have not attempted to show the only structural embodimentwhich occurs to us, as embodying the features of our invention, but have described an embodiment which we prefer to supply. The invention inherent in our structure will be set forth in the tion at the ends where the said intermediate portion terminates in the shallower sections, heingclosed except for the shallower sections and said shallower sections arranged for gravity flow.

2. In a structure of the character described, a series of open metal flume sections joined together to form a mud conveying cycle, the flume sections for the intermediate portion thereof being of a greater depth than the remainder thereof, said sec- 39 tion at the ends where the said intermediate portion terminates in the shallowersections, being closed except for the shallower sections, and a gate located so as to drain the said greater depth flume sections and said shallower sections arranged for gravity flow. Y

3. In a structure of thecharacter described, a series of metal flume sections arranged in a series of parts, the first part having a selected depth, the second part having a greater depth, and terminating in an L shaped section, and the third part extending from the angle branch of the L shaped section, the direct branch of said section which is in line with the said part of greater depth, having a gate valve therein, through which said part can be flushed and the first and third parts arranged for gravity fiow. L. In a structure of the "cli'aracter described, a series of metal flume sections arranged firstly as a flume part having a selected depth and terminating with an L shaped section of which the direct branch is equipped with a. gate, and secondly, as a greater depth part terminating in an L' shaped section'of which the direct-branch is WILLIAM L. WRIGHT. GEORGE W. WARNER. 

